Partnering with universities through the Clinical Placement Program is a critical integrated step towards developing a new generation of optometrists and establishing independent optometry as the preferred future employer of choice for the next generation of optometrists.
The objective of placement programs are to provide students with key exposures in clinical and commercial aspects of the business, while testing patients under supervision. By showcasing your practice, your passion for patients and observing the student in action, you have the best opportunity to choose the right optometrist to join your team, who can hit the ground running.
UNSW Private Placement Program
The UNSW Clinical Placement program is a full-time placement at a practice within Greater Sydney during which time the student would attend 5 full days per week (between Monday to Friday). The student should have the opportunity to complete a minimum of 50 direct patient examinations under appropriate supervision over that period. The first week would usually involve orientation to the practice and observation of the supervising optometrist completing consultations, and as the placement period progresses the student should be able to participate more in patient consultations.
The aim is to increase students’ experience. Students should gain experience in patient care through direct patient examination. They should also gain experience in communication skills, practice management and the role of optometry in eye care delivery to the Australian community.
Student level: Final year 5th year students
Duration & dates: 4 weeks
- Rotation 1: Monday 22 January to Friday 16 February
- Rotation 2: Monday 26 February to Friday 22 March
- Rotation 3: Monday 15 April to Friday 10 May
- Rotation 4: Monday 27 May to Friday 21 June
- Rotation 5: Monday 22 July to Friday 16 August
- Rotation 6: Monday 26 August to Friday 20 September
- Rotation 7: Monday 14 October to Friday 8 November
Supervisor criteria:
- Provide the student with direct patient encounters
- Provide guidance to the student under their care conducting eye examinations
- Supervision in the practice
- Student’s identity: ensure that students are addressed appropriately so that the title conveys to patient that they are a student in training and not a registered optometrist.
- Incident reporting and communication
- Documentation and feedback
- Optimise student learning experiences
- Develop clinical decision-making skills
- Enhance technical and communication skills
- Facilitate involvement in all facets of patient care
- Demonstrate professional behaviour
- Michelle Bonanno: mh.sovswil@unsw.edu.au or 02 9385 4943
UNSW Preceptorship Program
Stage 5 Preceptorship program: students attend a private optometry practice in rural or regional Australia or at an overseas institution to experience patient care through direct patient examination. They should also gain experience in communication skills, practice management and the role of optometry in eye care delivery.
Student level: Final year 5th year students
Duration & dates: 4 weeks
- Rotation A: Monday 26 February to Friday 22 March
- Rotation B: Monday 27 May to Friday 21 June
- Rotation C: Monday 26 August to Friday 20 September
- Rotation D: Monday 14 October to Friday 8 November
Supervisor criteria:
- Provide the student with direct patient encounters
- Provide guidance to the student under their care conducting eye examinations
- Supervision in the practice
- Student’s identity: ensure that students are addressed appropriately so that the title conveys to patient that they are a student in training and not a registered optometrist.
- Incident reporting and communication
- Documentation and feedback
- Optimise student learning experiences
- Develop clinical decision-making skills
- Enhance technical and communication skills
- 1 Facilitate involvement in all facets of patient care
- Demonstrate professional behaviour
- Michelle Bonanno: mh.sovswil@unsw.edu.au or 02 9385 4943
UniMelb Clinical Placement Program
Student activities can range from observation of consultations to performing part of or full consults. This would be guided by the supervisor and sometimes the proactiveness of the students. It might be that students are more ready to conduct a full consult towards the end of the year after accumulating more clinical experience.
If the practice has only one consultation room, a full student consult during lunch time might be one way to get them involved in hands on experience given that the consult will take longer. If a second room is available, the supervising optometrist might choose to use that for the student consultations and check in as and when whilst they work on their business admin matters. Otherwise, students can sit and observe consults and/or perform parts of it (e.g. preliminary, refraction, anterior or posterior exam).
Supervisors would be asked to sign off a daily feedback form. As students are not registered practitioners, patients seen are under the care of the supervising optometrist and Medicare charges are decided by the supervisors.
Student level: Final 4th year students (postgraduate)
Duration & dates: Metro placements run throughout the year. Students attends the practice 3-4 days a week for 1-2 weeks.
The 2024 schedule is as follows:
- 26 Feb – 8 Mar
- 11 Mar – 22 Mar
- 8 Apr – 19 Apr
- 22 Apr – 3 May
- 6 May – 17 May
- 20 May – 31 May
- 1 July – 12 July
- 15 July – 26 July
- 29 July – 9 Aug
- 12 Aug – 23 Aug
- 26 Aug – 6 Sept
Supervisor criteria:
- The Supervisor will ideally hold an endorsement for scheduled medicines (except for certain specialist placements)
- The Supervisor has a minimum of 3 years’ experience post-graduation/registration in the field
- The Practice is committed to quality improvement processes
- The Practice has a patient base that will expose students to a wide range of optometric presentations
- The Practice is able to occupy the student in a variety of tasks that will meet the objectives of the placement
- The Practice is able to commit to the duration of the external placement (dependant on the type of practice)
- The Supervisor is able to obtain patient consent prior to consultations involving the students.
- Anthea Cochrane (general enquiries): antheac@unimelb.edu.au or +61 3 9035 9892
- Bronwyn Thomson (administrative enquiries): bosha@unimelb.edu.au or +61 3 8344 7008
- Christine Nguyen (rural placements): christine.nguyen@unimelb.edu.au or +61 3 9035 3186
- Jia Jia Lek (metro placements): jjlek@unimelb.edu.au or +61 3 83445156
QUT Clinical Placement Program
Students spend up to a three-week period each semester in their 5th year, to complete a minimum of 100 hours of placement activity external to the QUT Health Clinics. Students cannot undertake placement in practices in which they are employed; or with supervisors or practices in which a conflict of interest (real or perceived) exists (e.g. supervising optometrist is a friend or family member).
Student level: 4th and 5th year
Duration & dates: 3 weeks throughout the final year
Supervision criteria: Two years or more experience as an AHPRA registered optometrist (or equivalent for ophthalmologists and international eye care providers). An agreement will be sent to the participating external provider prior to commencement of placement, to set out the obligations of both QUT and your organisation in relation to the placement and ensure the safety of our students.
- Dr Emily Pieterse: e.pieterse@qut.edu.au or 3138 5712
UWA Placement Program: Introduction to Optometry Practice – Clinical Examination
Familiarise students with the typical clinical routine and tests performed in an optometry consultation.
Student level: 2nd year Optometry Students (2nd trimester)
Key student activities
- Observe an optometrist perform routine eye examinations, including history taking, entrance testing, visual acuity, objective refraction, subjective refraction, ocular health assessment
- Assist in autorefraction, non-contact tonometry, anterior segment and/or retinal photography, OCT (where available)
- Exposure to a diverse range of patients, especially with respect to age and ethnicity (where possible)
- Exposure to different types of clinical examination, including at least one or more of the following:
- contact lens assessment, fitting and/or aftercare
- binocular vision examination
- ocular pathology examination and/or management (e.g. glaucoma, medical retina and anterior eye disease)
- therapeutic prescribing
- spectacle dispensing.
- Opportunity to discuss clinical decision making with an optometrist
Duration & dates: Tuesday and Fridays over 11 weeks. 1 session, 8 hours duration (OBSERVATION – watching, listening and low-level interaction).
- Week 1 – Tuesday 23.04.2024, Friday 26.04.2024
- Week 2 – Tuesday 30.04.2024, Friday 03.05.2024
- Week 3 – Tuesday 07.05.2024, Friday 10.05.2024
- Week 4 – Tuesday 14.05.2024, Friday 17.05.2024
- Week 5 – Tuesday 21.05.2024, Friday 24.05.2024
- Week 6 – Tuesday 28.05.2024, Friday 31.05.2024
- Non contact week
- Week 7- Tuesday 11.06.2024 Friday 14.06.2024
- Week 8 – Tuesday 18.06.2024 Friday 21.06.2024
- Week 9 – Tuesday 25.06.2024 Friday 28.06.2024
- Week 10- Tuesday 02.07.2024 Friday 05.07.2024
- Week 11 – Tuesday 09.07.2024 Friday 12.07.2024
- Khyber Alam: alam.khyber@uwa.edu.au or +61 431 339 466
UWA Placement Program: Introduction to Optometry Practice – Clinical Practice
Familiarise students with typical clinical routine of an Optometry practice.
Student level: 2nd year Optometry Students (1st trimester)
Key student activities
- Meet and greet patients Observe Optometrist consultation
- Record patient information (name, address, contact details)
- Appointment book management
- Observe Medicare/Health fund processing
- Assist in frame selection and spectacle measurement (PD measurements, heights)
- Participate in lens measurement and verification, including vertometry and spectacle measurements
- Observe and/or assist in spectacle repair and adjustments
Duration & dates: Tuesday and Fridays over 11 weeks. 1 Session, 4 hours (OBSERVATION – watching, listening and low-level interaction)
- Week 1 – Tuesday 09/01/2024, Friday 12/01/2024
- Week 2 – Tuesday 16/01/2024, Friday 19/01/2024
- Week 3 – Tuesday 23/01/2024, PH Australia day
- Week 4 – Tuesday 30/01/2024, Friday 02/02/2024
- Week 5 – Tuesday 06/02/2024, Friday 09/02/2024
- Week 6 – Tuesday 13/02/2024, Friday 16/02/2024
- Non- contact week
- Week 7 – Tuesday 27/02/2024, Friday 01/03/2024
- Week 8 – Tuesday 05/03/2024, Friday 08/03/2024
- Week 9 – Tuesday 12/03/2024, Friday 15/03/2024
- Week 10 – Tuesday 19/03/2024, Friday 22/03/2024
- Week 11 – Tuesday 26/03/2024, PH Good Friday
Supervisor criteria: Supervisors expected to sign a document, students then required to resubmit it via Meditrek
- Khyber Alam: alam.khyber@uwa.edu.au or +61 431 339 466
UWA Placement Program: Introduction to Optometry Practice – Contact Lens Specialty
Students have the opportunity to observe practice activity and patient care delivery. Familiarise students with the typical clinical routine of a speciality contact lens Practice to observe skills practiced in the management of speciality Contact Lens practice.
Student level: 3rd year Optometry Students (1st trimester)
Key student activities
- Observe an optometrist performing routine Contact Lens examinations. Students may observe fitting and/or aftercare appointments and management of contact lens related complications.
- Understanding practitioner decision making for choosing appropriate lens designs to suit patient’s needs may include soft and gas permeable contact lenses including ortho- keratology and Scleral contact lenses.
- Complex practice management opportunity to discuss clinical decision making with an optometrist.
Duration & dates: Tuesday and Fridays over 11 weeks. 1 Session, 4 hours (OBSERVATION – watching, listening and low-level interaction)
- Week 1 – Tuesday 09/01/2024, Friday 12/01/2024
- Week 2 – Tuesday 16/01/2024, Friday 19/01/2024
- Week 3 – Tuesday 23/01/2024, Anzac Day Friday 26/01/2024
- Week 4 – Tuesday 30/01/2024, Friday 02/02/2024
- Week 5 – Tuesday 06/02/2024, Friday 09/02/2024
- Week 6 – Tuesday 13/02/2024, Friday 16/02/2024
- Non- contact week
- Week 7 – Tuesday 27/02/2024, Friday 01/03/2024
- Week 8 – Tuesday 05/03/2024, Friday 08/03/2024
- Week 9 – Tuesday 12/03/2024, Friday 15/03/2024
- Week 10 – Tuesday 19/03/2024, Friday 22/03/2024
- Week 11 – Tuesday 26/03/2024, Good Friday 29/03/2024
- Donna Cashman: donna.cashmanr@uwa.edu.au or +61 400 211 972
UWA Placement Program: Introduction to Optometry Practice – Front Desk Systems and Processes
Familiarise students with routine “front office” systems and processes of an optometry practice.
Student level: 2nd year Optometry students (1st trimester 2024)
Key student activities
- Meet and greet patients
- Record patient information (name, address, contact details)
- Appointment book management
- Observe Medicare/Health fund processing
- Assist in frame selection and spectacle measurement (PD measurements, heights)
- Participate in lens measurement and verification, including vertometry and spectacle measurements Observe and/or assist in spectacle repair and adjustments
Duration & dates: Tuesday and Fridays over 11 weeks. 1 Session, 4 hours (OBSERVATION – watching, listening and low-level interaction)
- Week 1 – Tuesday 09/01/2024, Friday 12/01/2024
- Week 2 – Tuesday 16/01/2024, Friday 19/01/2024
- Week 3 – Tuesday 23/01/2024, PH Australian day
- Week 4 – Tuesday 30/01/2024, Friday 02/02/2024
- Week 5 – Tuesday 06/02/2024, Friday 09/02/2024
- Week 6 – Tuesday 13/02/2024, Friday 16/02/2024
- Non- contact week
- Week 7 – Tuesday 27/02/2024, Friday 01/03/2024
- Week 8 – Tuesday 05/03/2024, Friday 08/03/2024
- Week 9 – Tuesday 12/03/2024, Friday 15/03/2024
- Week 10 – Tuesday 19/03/2024, Friday 22/03/2024
- Week 11 – Tuesday 26/03/2024, PH Good Friday
Supervision criteria: Supervisors expected to sign a document, students then required to resubmit it.
- Donna Cashman: donna.cashmanr@uwa.edu.au or +61 400 211 972
Flinders University Clinical Placement Program
To provide clinical experience, Flinders University provides students with the opportunity to experience a wide range of clinical settings throughout Australia. Flinders has a network of placement partners that take students for periods of six weeks and encompass practices located in metropolitan and rural/remote locations with each student having the opportunity to experience independent, hospital and corporate environments.
Student level: Final year 5th year students
Duration & dates: A minimum of 4 days per week for 6 weeks with at least 2 supervised independent consultations per day for the student.
- Block 1 12/02/24 – 22/03/24
- Block 2 25/03/24 – 03/05/24
- Block 3 06/05/24 – 14/06/24
- Block 4 15/07/24 – 23/08/24
- Block 5 26/08/24 – 04/10/24
- Block 6 07/10/24 – 15/11/24
Supervision criteria:
- Supervise each student and manage the day-to-day running of the placement.
- Complete appropriate and required goal setting forms for each student.
- Communicate to the Flinders Optometry Placement Education Coordinator any queries, concerns or criticisms of each student or the placement program.
- Jacqueline Warren: jacqueline.warren@flinders.edu.au or +61 08 8201 5992
